The present invention relates to a telephone caller screening device and, more specifically, to the selection of caller identification to be stored in a call screening memory, for use in silently screening incoming telephone calls.
Many people have experienced the annoyance of a telephone ringing during dinner time only to discover that it was an unwanted sales solicitation. Several methods have been presented to the public, attempting to solve this problem.
In the past, telephone operating companies have offered caller avoidance services to their customers. For example, US West, now Qwest, offers No Solicitation(trademark) and Caller ID with Privacy+(trademark). Both services are designed to work in conjunction with the Caller Identification feature known as Caller ID that is provided by the telephone operating company at an additional monthly cost to the user. No Solicitation(trademark) allows customers to pre-select up to 25 telephone numbers of callers enabling bypass of a No Solicitation(trademark) message automatically and allowing the telephone(s) to ring. All other callers will hear the messagexe2x80x94xe2x80x9cYou have reached a number that does not accept solicitation. If you are a solicitor, please add this number to your do not call list and hang up now. Otherwise please press xe2x80x98onexe2x80x99 or stay on the line.xe2x80x9d Thus, if the unwanted solicitor is persistent by pressing xe2x80x98onexe2x80x99 or staying on the line, the phone(s) would still ring. Callers with selected numbers on the list, who are calling from a non-selected number, will also be intercepted with the No Solicitation(trademark) message. Furthermore, users of the No Solicitation(trademark) service must tediously enter all 25 desired telephone numbers into the screening system. Caller ID with Privacy+(trademark) requires callers whose names appear as xe2x80x9cUnavailablexe2x80x9d on Caller ID units to identify themselves by recording their name. This allows the user to hear the name and choose whether to accept the call. The telephones will be permitted to ring once this requirement is satisfied. Therefore, all solicitors whose Caller ID is xe2x80x9cAvailablexe2x80x9d, but unknown to the user, will continue to disturb the premise with ringing telephones. Known callers, who call from an unfamiliar number, may also be ignored by the user. Known callers, who call from an xe2x80x9cUnavailablexe2x80x9d number, also will experience this call screening process. Both, No Solicitation(trademark) and Caller ID with Privacy+(trademark), require additional monthly telephone service fees charged to the user by the telephone operating company, and ultimately, do not prevent the phones from ringing due to unwanted callers.
Another technique available to the public is provided by the CMS2001 device from Matthew""s Communications Management, Inc., U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,111. In addition to a central control module, an additional control module is associated with each telephone unit. The control module associated with each telephone unit can isolate the telephone unit from the telephone line, preventing initial ringing of the telephone unit during an incoming telephone call. Specific control modules and associated telephone units are selectively activated by the central control module based on caller information. However, when caller information is based on Caller ID data, known callers who are xe2x80x9cUnavailablexe2x80x9d, or who are calling from an unknown number, will be erroneously screened. The user, in addition to paying for the central control module must also pay for an additional control module for each telephone unit. Thus, this system has a considerable associated expense.
Yet, another technique, similar to that of the CMS2001 device, is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,089. In this technique, each telephone unit is associated with a control module that isolates an individual telephone device from the telephone line by a switch. However, all incoming telephone calls allow the individual isolated telephone device to ring at least once, prior to answering and receiving caller ID data for screening. The control module then determines a valid caller and causes the isolated telephone to ring distinctively based on caller information. Thus with this technique, a user is always disturbed by all incoming telephone callers.
Hence, there is need for a caller screening device that will silently screen telephone callers based on selected caller identification data, and alert a premise user of an incoming telephone caller only when the caller is known, without regard to the actual physical location, or nature, of the telephone devices being used by the caller.
To reduce cost, there is a further need to silently answer and screen telephone callers without isolating the telephone devices from the telephone line with switches, yet to prevent audible ringing of the telephone devices connected to the line during the incoming ring signal on the telephone line. This is to be accomplished without adding a costly control device to each receiving telephone device in the system.
Accordingly, it is the object of the invention to provide an improved telephone caller screening device.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved telephone caller screening device by selecting and storing selected telephone caller identification data without requiring manual input by the telephone system user, by using the caller ID information received from previous incoming telephone calls.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved telephone caller screening device that is operable with pre-existing installed telephone devices coupled to an existing telephone line.
It is, yet, another object of the invention to provide an improved telephone caller screening device that causes the silent answering of an incoming telephone call by generating an off-hook condition on the telephone line, in response to a telephone ring signal, such that audible ringing of the telephone devices connected to the telephone line is suppressed, and the ring signal of the incoming telephone call is terminated.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an improved telephone caller screening device which, when coupled to a telephone line, prevents audible ringing of telephone devices when in a Privacy mode without the added expense of isolating the telephone devices from the telephone line during the incoming telephone ring signal on the line.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved telephone caller screening device that generates an alerting signal to activate an alerting device for alerting the recipient of a telephone call in response to a valid code from the telephone caller.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a system in which a valid telephone caller activates an alerting device when the caller enters a valid code associated with the telephone caller.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an improved telephone caller screening device that is silently operable with a message device when the caller does not enter a valid code.
More generally, the present invention is intended to be coupled to the telephone line, and work with a pre-existing installed telephone system to silently screen incoming telephone callers.